recommend a good sway bar set up (1 Viewer)

[HawkGunner]

I want to put a rear, removable sway bar on the rear end of my pickup.

On the straight flat roads of Texas, my lifted modified truck was fine at "highway speeds" (55-65mph). But I've since moved back to the backwoods of Virginia, and these not so flat, not so straight roads give me a bit of body sway.

Anybody running any sway bars they like?

Thanks

 

[CreeperSleeper]

I'm not currently running sway-bars, just really good and tuned shocks with leaf springs. However, I have used a Currie Anti-Rock in a previous rig and it worked really well. That rig was 4-link on air shocks.

 

[HawkGunner]

I'm not currently running sway-bars, just really good and tuned shocks with leaf springs. However, I have used a Currie Anti-Rock in a previous rig and it worked really well. That rig was 4-link on air shocks.

Thanks!

The obvious answer is to tune my suspension. But I'm still in the process of moving and finding a house, so until I get a place and build a garage... a mostly bolt on (possibly welded a little) part is the easy button.

 

[ntsqd]

Do you have a front sway-bar? If you do not or if you add too stiff of a rear bar to the truck I'm quite certain that you will NOT like how it drives on the pavement. The axle with the stiffest roll rate has the least cornering traction. So go too stiff on a rear bar and the rear will pass you on the outside.

 

[HawkGunner]

Do you have a front sway-bar? If you do not or if you add too stiff of a rear bar to the truck I'm quite certain that you will NOT like how it drives on the pavement. The axle with the stiffest roll rate has the least cornering traction. So go too stiff on a rear bar and the rear will pass you on the outside.

This is why I like this forum. Thank you for the lesson.

Seeing as good sway bar setups are expensive, having to do a front and rear is likely more than I care to spend at the moment. I suppose I'll just live with the light body sway for now, until I can get my new shop built and get the suspension tuned properly.

 

[ntsqd]

If you tune the dampers to try to control the body roll you'll be giving up a bunch of low speed compliance.

Sway-bars don't have to be anything really special or exotic. Can heat bend (LARGE RADIUS!) some 1045. 1050, or 1144 alloy bar stock and make a sway-bar. Use the OEM rubber bushings and clamps from something that came with a small OD bar to attach it to the frame (or axle) and some rod ends to attach the ends to the axle (or frame). The larger the OD and/or the shorter the lever arms the stiffer the bar will be, and vice versa.

 

[HawkGunner]

If you tune the dampers to try to control the body roll you'll be giving up a bunch of low speed compliance.

Sway-bars don't have to be anything really special or exotic. Can heat bend (LARGE RADIUS!) some 1045. 1050, or 1144 alloy bar stock and make a sway-bar. Use the OEM rubber bushings and clamps from something that came with a small OD bar to attach it to the frame (or axle) and some rod ends to attach the ends to the axle (or frame). The larger the OD and/or the shorter the lever arms the stiffer the bar will be, and vice versa.

Do you think 30mm OD would be sufficient?

 

[ntsqd]

As a guess you'll need to use an inch sized stock as the likely options in metric sizes will be very limited.

What would the lever length be? The bar diameter is only half of the equation. If the lever length is only 6" then it will be pretty stiff. If it is 24" it won't be. Rather than re-inventing it all, measure an Anti-Rock's actual bar diameter and it's lever length. Knowing those two dims will allow you to duplicate that performance.